My Dry Veganuary: Week 1

I cannot believe this will last, but right now it is as if alcohol had never been invented. At 10 pm on December 31st I switched from prosecco to water and danced the new year in feeling almost sober and wholly optimistic, and I have not had a single craving for alcohol since. So that’s alright. It’s astonishing, considering how I’d been chucking it back throughout the entire Christmas break (and for some months previously), but most welcome. There’s no doubt that the focus required to do this vegan thing properly has played a big role in keeping my mind occupied, as has the sudden lifting of the writing ban my subconscious (for reasons best known to itself, as it never shared them with me) had been imposing on me for the last year and a bit.

Regarding Veganuary, that's a bit different. I’ve always been interested in nutrition and was fairly clued up to a point, but I’d never done anything quite like this before so I threw everything at it: I read reviews of vegan cookbooks, swotted up on possible pitfalls, watched documentaries, consulted vegan friends, asked my family which recipes they liked the look of (as I refuse point black to cook separately for them), put together a meal plan and shopping list and then spent around 3 hours in Tesco trying to find everything.

Here are some of my thoughts, feelings and general findings across these first 7 days:

• I made several rookie mistakes: Worcestershire sauce (for the Virgin Marys which are my go-to non-alcoholic drink - crap! - still, it was already in the cupboard and I will replace it with a vegan alternative once it is gone); a dash of red wine in cooking (alcohol content becomes negligible but I need to source vegan wine); buying muesli which turned out to contain honey

• Oh my guts. My IBS, which has been well-controlled for years, does not respond well to much healthy vegan fare including staples such as lentils and beans. I have discovered that chickpeas are OK, as are well-rinsed tinned beans in small doses.

• I absolutely love creating healthy, nutritionally balanced, new meals from a massive variety of purely plant-based ingredients. It feels so clever and rewarding and there are so many pretty colours!

• Jackfruit is gross and not at all like pulled pork; it is all a big fat lie. Devil in a vacuum sealed bag.

• Will a cup of tea ever taste 'normal' with plant milk?

• I have as much energy as ever, if not more, and so far my diet hasn’t affected my running other than possibly for the better. Of course, the lack of booze will be helping here too.

• Wetherspoons do a banging vegan breakfast. It was just what I needed this morning when I cancelled my gym review because my body was clamouring for more than a bowl of porridge or muesli. I scarfed down a good 1000 calories, but found it odd that it was served with two pats of Anchor butter (which I insisted went back to kitchen to be sent out to someone else because the potential waste made me anxious - I needed my refusal of that tiny amount of butter to be counted).

• I have, unsurprisingly, lost no weight at all - which is kind of OK, as I'm not particularly trying to. However, I haven’t gained any either.

• My family have been surprisingly supportive and have been eating the meals without complaint, even throwing in a few compliments.

• Tomorrow I go back to work and am unsure of how to keep this going without cutting corners nutritionally due to lack of time.

• I have not felt at all deprived, food-wise or booze-wise. Not ONE bit. Well, OK, maybe that morning cuppa ...

• Tesco’s own mint chocolate thins are vegan. Result!

• My mood has been fantastic and I have been full of beans (literally) … today, however, I hit a moment of painful realisation. After reading an article about dairy cows and their enforced separation from their calves, which has left me feeling saddened and distressed all day, I am questioning ever returning to consuming dairy products. As a lifelong omnivore I was always as irritated as the next person by ‘born again’ vegans (and I promise never to become one, by the way - the fable of the cold north wind springs to mind), but this week has allowed me to remove the defensive blinkers I always wore; which I had to wear to continue to allow myself to eat what I wanted to eat - and this is the result. I hadn’t expected such an impact, and certainly not in such a short space of time. I am both interested and a little apprehensive to see what the next 3 weeks will bring. Will I be able to scramble back into the matrix? Will I want to?